3.8.1 Introduction

The SkeletonCDF program is used to make a fully structured CDF, called a skeleton CDF, by reading a text file called a skeleton table.   The skeleton table contains the information necessary to create a CDF that is complete in all respects except for record-variant (RV) variable values. (RV variables vary from record to record.) RV values are then written to the CDF by the execution of an application program. The SkeletonCDF program allows a CDF to be created with the following.

1. The necessary header information --- the number of dimensions and dimension sizes for the rVariables, format, data encoding, and variable majority.
2. The gAttribute definitions and any number of gEntries for each.
3. The rVariable and zVariable definitions.
4. The vAttribute definitions and the entries corresponding to each variable.
5. The data values for those variables that are non-record-variant (NRV). NRV variables do not vary from record to record.

The created CDF is referred to as a skeleton CDF.